R+P brands

I've taken the advise of some guys on her and decided not to take my truck to 4wpw for a gear swap. The diesel mechanic that does work on our trucks is willing to do it on trade.

Now my question is which brand of gears should i go with?4.56 for 10b. Ideally i'd like to keep it under 150 a set. i was leaning towards Yukon, but did a search and heard that they sometimes are noisy and are hard to set up correctly.
What about Richmond gears? are they any good? Jegs got them for $167.00 a set. anyone have experience with them? what other gears are a good choice and not over $200. .

Yukon's are what I have run and setup. Yes, they are a pain in the ass to setup, but I havent noticed any noise from them yet. I've been running them on my DD 8 months so far. Its on a 14 bolt SF with 4.88's.

I would say run superior's or richmond's. Basically any well known brand name gear.

Richmond is the proabably the best gear as far as strength goes. They are the main gears used in most racing applications. They supposedly make a little noise at higher speeds though. They would be great for a front 10b or D44 for strength.

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Are you re-gearing a 10 bolt rear axle? If so, you need to re-evaluate that idea and swap it out.

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I know everyone on here hates the rear 10b,with good reason.I've talked to many people about this, the reasons im not swapping out to a bigger axle is:

1- only running 33's, its my DD. If i was going bigger than 35, or making more of a serious trail rig, there would be no question that i'd swap in a 14b.

2- only mild wheeling, 90% of the time on highway.

3- 14b is overkill for me, i cant justify losing over 2" of ground clearance,besides all the things i'd have to change to accomodate it.

4- the 10b rear has gotten a bad rep mostly due to the gov loc.No, it wont hold up to big tires, but if you keep the tires 35 or under, dont have a gov lock, and arent stupid with the skinny pedal, itll hold up fine.

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If you have overdrive and plan on tires 35" or larger, I'd say 4.56 is a minimum, but I'd go lower than that.

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i think 4.56 would be perfect with a 33-35" tire and overdrive. gear charts say that a 35" with 4.56 will be the same as my 3.73 and stock tires, so with 33's it'll have a little more grunt. I've done my homework on this, just asking about gear brands and personal experience.

Has anyone installed a R+P from Richmond? are they a pain to setup like yukons are?

Genuine gear has a lifetime warranty, has anyone installed them personally? i know 4wpw uses them.

If you want to regear a 10 bolt, go for it. I personally wouldn't spend a dime on a 10 bolt. The 10 bolt I destroyed had nothing to do with a Gov-Loc, I had 31s on the rig, and stripped the ring and pinion of their teeth. I just totally disagree that a 10 bolt will hold up for anything. A D44 sized axle does not belong in the rear of a fullsize vehicle if you ever intend on using it. If it was there, I'd leave it, but I definitely wouldn't spend any money on it at all. For just the cost of a ring and pinion set, you can probably get yourself a 4.56 geared 14 bolt. Later on down the road, you can add disc brakes and a locker if desired, and it's not that expensive. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

4.56s are perfect for 33-35" tires. I'd go a little lower if 35s are in your future though....but if you're gonna keep the 10 bolt in the rear you might just want to stick with 4.56. That pinion is gonna get pretty small after that.

I have installed richmond, yukon, motive and genuine gear and the yukon gears did take the most time to set up. They are either U.S. gear or Motive gear take offs. Randy's reboxes them. They are a good gear but the take some paitence to set them up. Genuine gear have a lifetime warranty but Randys has the best prices. Call around and get prices then call randys and ask for Mac, he is their tech guy. Good person to deal with.

yeah, i think the 10b rear is more of a turd than the govlock is. the semi-floating c-clip design is just crapola and theres no way around it. any axle that lets the tire fall off the rig when u bust an axle sucks.

all of that said, its ur axle, build it how you want to.

AFA gear options go, Yukon is a company that buys wholesale and repackages/resells to the public... so its hard to say "that their quality sucks!" cause it could just be whatever manufacturer yukon got that particular set from. IIRC some peeps on pirate have got superior, genuine and richmond gear sets boxed as "yukon gears" in the past. Gear science is pretty dialed in these days, Im not sure there is a clear "brand x is the best gear set ever!" type situation. If I had to place a bet on which is best, Id say superior... but there really aint that much difference from what I can tell.

Genuine gear has a lifetime warranty, has anyone installed them personally? i know 4wpw uses them.

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I had genuines front and rear and they did tend to whine a little, but the problem came when the ring gear got warped and took out the carrier bearings then the pinion bearings and then the housing got f'ed up because the races for the carrier bearings spun. Sure they'll replace the ring and pinion for free because each set of foreign made gears costs them about $4, but that doesn't replace the $100+ for all the bearings and seals nor the $300+ labor to have a shop install them. Even the mechanic that installed my new gears (us gear) said that the old pattern looked fine and we couldn't figure out why in the sam hell the gears would warp... I don't tow anything EVER, I don't drive fast, and I am only on 35''s. So take it from me, don't buy genuine gears.

If I had it to do over again I would run superior gears, much higher quality, made in America, awesome customer service, and they will warranty gears for the first two years (so if you are worried about ruining them during setup, they've got you covered)
I've been running their chromoly shafts for a while now with no problems and the only reason that I don't have their gears now is because I was in a pinch and had to have them installed THAT DAY do I went to what I thought would be the next best.

BTW it turns out that these gears whine seriously loud, so loud in fact that I can barely hear my stereo over them (time for a louder stereo?) they drive smooth and the pattern is good, but they sure are loud! Next time I'll get superiors /forums/images/graemlins/deal.gif

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